6th Premio Cairo
With the 6th edition of the Cairo Prize, Italian figuration is changing, seeking new solutions, weaving different and unexpected relationships. The latest generation not only definitively cuts the umbilical cord that bound current research to the 20th century and post-war themes, but even seems to disown any kinship with the generations of Luca Pignatelli, Federico Guida and Andrea Chiesi, just to mention the winners of some past editions.
The protagonists of the 2005 event have fathers and spiritual brothers among the gurus of advertising graphics, they boast the flair of video clip directors, they give an eye to the evolution of taste and design while appropriating the surreal comedy that is once again in vogue today. In short, they bring a new wind to the world of painting, sculpture and video by looking elsewhere, finding cues and references far away. Considering that, for the first time, this year's participants in the Prize were chosen by the readers of Arte from a shortlist of ten established masters, the event may be worth an imprimatur. Studio Azzurro and Salvo, Montesano and Zorio, i.e. leading historical exponents of figuration, photography and arte povera, saw in Armenia, Arruzzo, D'Amaro, Ehrenfeld, Galliani, Laboratorio Saccardi, Pasini, Piovaccari, Ricci and Zamboni the possible heirs. Those capable of truly forgetting their lesson.
Selected artists
The 10 selected artists are: Giuseppe Armenia, Gabriele Arruzzo, Valentina D’Amaro, Manuel Ehrenfeld, Michelangelo Galliani, Laboratorio Saccardi, Carlo Pasini, Luca Piovaccari, Stefania Ricci, Alberto Zamboni.
The Jury
The Jury is composed by: Daniela Clerici, Rosellina Archinto, Fabio Cavallucci, Massimiliano Gioni, Gianfranco Maraniello, Jean-Hubert Martin, Marco Pierini, Stefano Zecchi.
The winner
In 2005, the selection of names in the competition was entrusted to ten internationally renowned Italian masters: Omar Galliani, Piero Gilardi, Aldo Mondino, Gian Marco Montesano, Giulio Paolini, Fabrizio Plessi, Salvo, Studio Azzurro, Massimo Vitali, Gilberto Zorio.
The winner for the first time was a woman, Valentina D'Amaro, who participated with a landscape.
Award-winning work: Untitled, 2005, oil on canvas, 135x220 cm.
Untitled, 2005 oil on canvas, 135x220 cm.
Award-winning work
Valentina D'Amaro, a painter, linked to figuration, works on rigor, on the insistent repetition of the same subject, taken to extremes. Every slightest variation is the result of a slow, very slow construction, while the only theme is the landscape obtained with only two colors, green and white. Central subject is the cut of the horizon. The artist thus aims at pure, conceptual painting, without frills and frills, which gets right to the center of the idea (luca beatrice).
Award citation
A landscape dominated by the flat, silent horizon of the countryside, rendered in uniform green. A nature always the same as itself.